The quality of plastic food-contact products encompasses aspects such as hygiene, performance during use, and appearance, all of which can be controlled during the processing and molding stages through careful selection of raw materials and auxiliary components, as well as optimization of production processes.
The impact of food contact materials on human health stems from the migration of their components into food. Therefore, selecting appropriate raw and auxiliary materials is a critical step in controlling the hygienic quality of these products. When manufacturing plastic food contact items, a wide range of base polymers and additives are employed, each with distinct properties and functions. These base polymers and additives consist of numerous chemicals, varying widely in terms of toxicity levels, as well as exhibiting different migration behaviors under diverse usage conditions. Moreover, regulatory requirements differ across countries. For this reason, it’s essential to carefully evaluate all these factors and make informed decisions about raw and auxiliary material selection, ensuring top-notch product quality right from the source.
Polymers themselves are high-molecular-weight macromolecules that are not easily absorbed by the human body. However, polymers may contain unreacted monomers and starting materials, as well as intermediate degradation or transformation products. Additionally, some polymerization aids used during synthesis can also remain in the polymer. These small-molecule substances are one of the primary sources of migration.
In particular, functional additives expected to play a technical role in the final product—such as plasticizers, fillers and reinforcing agents, colorants, stabilizers, impact modifiers (toughening agents), coupling agents, foaming agents, crosslinking agents, surface property enhancers, and specialty functional additives—are also one of the primary sources of material components migrating into food.
In addition to controlling raw and auxiliary materials, carefully managing process formulations and production techniques can also help minimize the migration of material components, thereby enhancing the product's hygiene quality.
